Copyright troll honeypots spotted on The Pirate Bay

Ian Paul |
Aug. 19, 2013

Some pretty strong evidence has come to light that one of the most notorious copyright troll operations in the U.S. targeted The Pirate Bay with a honeypot operation, a trap set to detect unauthorized use of copyrighted files.

But like any other site, TPB also keeps backups of its site, which is where Sharkmp4's IP address history came from. Whether it's to battle spammers or to track site analytics, numerous sites around the Web store IP addresses for an unspecified period of time.

So the Pirate Bay's IP address store is just another reminder that you can't rely on the good graces of your favorite websites to protect your privacy online. Anyone looking to go as private as possible should look into a VPN provider or start using the Tor network to get around the Web.